Friday, February 26, 2010

Some Random Thoughts on David Alpaugh's Article "The New Math of Poetry" in the Chronicle of Higher Education

David Alpaugh's article "The New Math of Poetry" states that too many poetry books are being published, the Best American Poetry series is a form of domestic terrorism, and the ozone layer is messed up as a result of a book called Sanctified: An Anthology of LGBT Christians. The article appears in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

It is dangerous to have too many poetry books out there because then libraries won't be able to store them and they'll have no choice but to put huge stacks of them outside where the garbage men will mistake them for trash and our literary culture will wind up being incinerated on a Thursday afternoon.

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It is dangerous to have too many poetry books out there because not creating is better than creating unless it has to do with pharmaceuticals.

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Anthologies that circle around a group of people or for that matter any theme are fatal especially the idea of having one that focuses around Gay and Lesbian Christians, because that means that the gay men who actually like to get laid will want to create an anthology of their own and no one will know who the well-adjusted gay men are from the ones who aren't and that means the entire queer movement will dissipate right before our eyes and we won't have the rights we already have like calling ourselves married even though we don't have a contract and ring. That's the wonderful thing about Constitutional Rights. There is free speech and you can say whatever lies you want. Unless you're in school and then you have to say "I agree to disagree" when you really are going to say something much more complicated like "you can disagree with me but I'll make you pay for it later, asshole."

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Why shouldn't editors publish their friends? Who else are they going to publish? Their enemies?

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The Best American Poetry anthologies are killing us. It is impossible to see the word "best" as a fun way of trying to see what's out there in the poetry world from one famous author's point-of-view, and we all know that more than one point-of-view can lead to things like never passing a health care bill.

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Story Line Press publishes mostly men who write about missing their dead fathers who worked a hard job and made sacrifices so their sons could write bad poetry. And if that wasn't enough, they can also rhyme! Good things that the University of Chicago press has taken control of the situation. Now the men are gay men. They can still rhyme. And can do those hets one better. This is the new formula on how to create a brilliant poetic work:

Rhyme + anal sex reference = Good ReviewRhyme + Ovid + two anal sex references = Best Poetry Book of the Year

*As an MFA student, whenever someone wrote a poem that was longer than a page, someone would say, "I think you've got two poems here." And everyone would nod and say yes you've got two poems here and they look all happy as if we all got something for fucking free.

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I personally like any article about literary stuff that's called The New Math of Poetry because it confirmed that all my advanced degrees in creative writing really matter. Math is a real subject, and putting that word one word away from the work poetry give us all legitimacy.

Poetry degrees need legitimacy. I took out $90,000.00 in student loans and I had published nine poems by the time I graduated. That means each poem cost $10,000.

If DA thinks too many people are writing poetry and too many poems are being published, perhaps he should be the first to stop writing poetry and stop sending his work out. Hmm, that way there will be a little more space for the genius poets who aren't being published!

I think there should be even more poetry anthologies. With the economy as it is, we can use the remainders to build little houses for ourselves. Also, along these lines, I think there should be an anthology called "Good Try! The Year's Best Efforts at Poetry." It could feature poems that aren't very good, but you can tell the poet really worked hard on them.

Alpaugh wrote a very similar piece in 2003 for Poets & Writers magazine. It was called "The Professionalization of Poetry," and primarily focused on the proliferaton of MFAs in Poetry.http://www.houstonpoetryreview.net/fall2003_review_001.htmlIn someways his 'New Math'piece is really a retread.

A different question is why would Poets & Writers or The Chronicle of Higher Ed offer space to such nonsense. The answer is that their editors know the piece is simple-minded provocation and it will attract a hue & cry, and that backlash translates into readership interest.

So in that way this is case someone 'pulling your chain'. We rail against Alpaugh's idiocy and we play our part in an orchestrated controversy.

This is my favorite quote from your article: "As an MFA student, whenever someone wrote a poem that was longer than a page, someone would say, "I think you've got two poems here." And everyone would nod and say yes you've got two poems here and they look all happy as if we all got something for fucking free."

Steve, I love this post so much, I don't even know where to begin. I have to agree with KA that the "two poems" entry made me laugh hardest (probably because I was in that prose poem class and got to witness it first hand). I also really love the formula for brilliant poems. And the way you slide in commentary about pharmaceuticals and health-care reform. And of course, you are absolutely spot-on about the "math." Brilliant. Thank you. It's so sad, the way creativity now has to be legitimized by association with science, math, logic. We have become such a pragmatic society, so strangely comforted by the mechanics of quantification, so fascinated with ideas of defined sets (as in how many books of poetry ought to be published). Of course, such caluclations never account for the remainder, the surplus of the population that can't be factored in...all those people without wedding contracts, for example.

The Weary World Rejoices

All Screwed Up

Blind Date With Cavafy

About Me

Steve Fellner's second book of poems The Weary World Rejoices was published last year. His first book of poems Blind Date with Cavafy won the Thom Gunn Gay Male Poetry Award.
His memoir, All Screwed Up, focuses on his relationship with his ex-trampoline champion mother.